WCE Agreement for Sale

[FarmRanger]

Anyhoo, back to the original intent of this thread…and a couple questions for Lee or Charlie.

Will it make any difference having a U.K. ownership of the WCE? Surely they wouldn’t pay $40 million and then not run it properly.

Will the exchange be accessible to more traders now, and hopefully increase liquidity?

I like having the WCE 10? minute delay prices available on the internet. Hopefully that doesn’t change.

[chaffmeister]

Inter-Continental Exchange (ICE) is based in Atlanta, GA.
Plans for WCE is to continue running it as it stands - as a Canadian-regulated exchange. Gives ICE a Canadian foot-hold. There's no reason to change venues. WCE will trade on ICE platform (instead of current CBOT platform) and clear using ICE facilities (instead of current KBOT facilities).
Best thing is that ICE has deep pockets and that can't hurt market development and marketing of WCE.

ICE also in the hunt to buy CBOT.

[wd9]

Chaff, do you know if the board of directors of Will and the rest will stay on directing?

[chaffmeister]

wd9 - I don't know how much integration with ICE management there will be. Seems to me there is a good case to keep things the way they are for quite a while.

[melvill]

Chaff, I looked around the ICE home page at www.theice.com again and discovered indeed that the ICE HQ is at Atlanta, GA. Sorry for the goof-up. However, the ICE futures HQ is in London, England.

ICE even has an office in Calgary.

[padron]

Everyone has an office in Calgary - even SWP. Their new corporate headquarters perhaps?

WCE staff and management to remain in place as ICE move is designed to secure trading volume on their exchange and clearinghouse. But once current owners relinquish their shares they are not likely to remain on the Board. My guess is that ICE will populate it to the extent they need to.

[chaffmeister]

Gagne told me today that he expects the management to remain intact and eventually the board will get smaller. And yes, padron, likely a different group of individuals.

[Burbert]

What an odd way to do business! Leave the old staff in place for a while, till you learn the ropes, then replace management with your own people. Start firing. Duhhhh, I think it is called restructuring. Wow what a new modern way to conduct business. I'm certain farmers stand to benefit in a huge way, from this change. Lets all get on the band wagon and suck up, quick now, somebody else may get a head of you guys..........

[chaffmeister]

What are you talking about Burbert? Do you even read the other posts before you type something?

[padron]

From what I've seen from your posts Burbert it is very evident to me that you live in a very negative space - the cup is half empty. You really do need to take a look at your context on the world.

To clarify, Board members are not staff. In the case of WCE they are representatives of most of the major grain companies and Securities firms along with some external representatives. They will be replaced by ICE representatives because ICE is going to be the new owner. Much the same as you would farm new land you purchased from someone else. They wouldn't continue to farm it after you buy it from them.

WCE staff will remain and my guess is the trading volumes are going to increase - especially with deregulation. This may or may not require an increase in staffing. This potential sale of the WCE to a private entity follows a string of these acquisitions around the world and brings stability and innovation to the WCE at a very opportune time. They will now have access to private sector capital to expand and offer more risk mitigation tools to farmers in western Canada. It really is a very good piece of news.